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Historian Catherine Freyne is nearing completion of a doctoral thesis at UTS, titled: “The Family as Closet: Gay/Bisexual married men and their families in Sydney, 1970-2000”.
Some of the primary sources that Catherine has been studying are her own father’s personal correspondence and writings which document his experiences of having secret relationships with men and his reflections after leaving a 30 year marriage and claiming a homosexual identity.
Catherine’s doctoral project places her father’s story and her personal experience in an historical context alongside accounts of other people in similar family situations during the late twentieth century and analysed through social constructivist, feminist, and anti-homophobic lenses.
You’ll also hear about Catherine’s vocational pathways to becoming an historian and multimedia producer, and below are links to Catherine’s award-winning audio projects.
The Making of Mardi Gras and Mardi Gras Supernova: Joint Winner of Oral History Australia Media Award and Finalist for NSW Premier’s History Award (Digital History Prize). Catherine Freyne, Scott McKinnon and Mark Don.
Public Intimacies: The 1974 Royal Commission on Human Relationships: Winner of the Multimedia History Prize, NSW Premier’s History Award. Michelle Arrow, Catherine Freyne and Timothy Nicastri.
Tit for Tat: The Story of Sandra Willson: Winner of the Multimedia History Prize, NSW Premier’s History Award. Catherine Freyne and Phillip Ulman.
Photos on this page supplied by Catherine Freyne for use by the Wide Open Air Exchange